Teaching

Pedagogical approach

I approach teaching with two main aims: to cultivate students’ sense of wonder by demonstrating how many aspects of daily life merit greater philosophical examination; to support students in their efforts to navigate a complex world by improving their critical tool-kit of close reading and argumentative writing skills.

I promote the first aim through real-world application. For example, while my introductory ethics class emphasized the features around which ethical theories are organized – consequences, constraints, character, caring – my lectures juxtaposed these concepts with contemporary controversies in animal ethics, social media shaming and algorithmic tools. The final examination asked students to read popular press articles on such topics as euthanasia for the mentally ill, job hiring algorithms, and consumer cryonics and to explain how two different theories inform our understanding of the topics, whether their conclusions diverge, and which theory proves more satisfying.

As for the second aim, I seek opportunities for students to practice close reading and argumentative writing in class and out. An integral part of my methodology class consisted in weekly writing tasks, interspersed with short argumentative take-home assignments. For the former, with the aim of improving their writing skills and cultivating good habits, students completed tasks which ranged from fine-tuning thesis statements to composing argumentative paragraphs using various paper drafting strategies. For the latter, students wrote short papers targeting skills like rewriting drafts (by revisiting a paper in need of improvement), reading closely (by reconstructing and critiquing an unsound argument embedded in a text) and conducting original research (by designing a focused research question and agenda).

All in all, I foster a classroom environment where students’ interests and needs are identified so that they are not merely passive observers to philosophical reflection but active contributors in learning to ask good questions and in taking the discipline of philosophy in new directions.